Joss Whedon X Gallery1988

Joss stopped by the opening and I was able to snag a shot of him with my artwork!

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A few years ago at San Diego Comic Con, during a Q&A in ballroom 20, someone asked Joss Whedon a question about his favorite fan art. During a very awesome and thoughtful answer, he mentioned that he hoped Gallery 1988 would one day do a tribute to his work with an art show. Well everybody... get ready.

It's no secret that i'm a huge fan of the man. A few years ago I created this tribute to the crew of the Serenity with "River Tam & The Fireflies". That piece really kickstarted my career as a pop-culture artist. As I was working on that idea, I never imagined the places it would take me... The following year for the next Crazy 4 Cult show, I made another one for "Dr. Horrible".  And Then... my amazing wife (girlfriend at the time), Kristin got me hooked on Buffy. I created this "Buffy and the Scoobies" piece for her.

I'm so happy to be a part of this show. I've been a Joss fan for years, and I can't wait to see all of the artwork at the show! When I was planning out what to do for my solo show "Storytime", the first three things I wrote down on my list of MUSTS for the show was Firefly, Buffy, and Dr. Horrible. When I presented my list to the gallery, they suggested that maybe I put those aside as they had something in the works that those would be perfect for. I got VERY excited, and i'm happy that I finally got to do them.  Without further ado (about nothing)... here's my artwork for the Tribute to Joss Whedon show at Gallery 1988!

Shiny! Get this print by clicking HERE! SOLD OUT!!

Scoobies! Get this print by clicking HERE! SOLD OUT!!

Balls! Get this print by clicking HERE!

This show is going to be amazing, so if you're a fan of Joss Whedon, Buffy, Firefly, Dr. Horrible, Angel, Cabin In The Woods, Much Ado About Nothing, or anything else this creative genius has been responsible for... please, come. You won't want to miss it. Fingers crossed for a Dollhouse piece :)

Also... though it's not a part of this show, my "Avengers" print from my solo show "Storytime" will also be available to purchase at the gallery! Again, this piece is only available through the gallery (at Marvel's request) and not online. So if you're coming out to the show, you can pick one up (unless they're sold out).

The show opens this Friday, September 5th from 7-10pm. I'm sure the turnout is going to be insane, so don't miss out on the fun!

"Joss Whedon X Gallery1988"
Gallery 1988 (West)
7308 Melrose Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90046
http://www.gallery1988.com

The Avengers Assemble @ Gallery 1988

***UPDATE #2***

If you're heading to San Diego for Comic Con 2013, you can purchase this shirt exclusively at the Marvel booth (#2329)

***UPDATE***

I am so proud to be a part of this!! Marvel has announced their upcoming exclusive merchandise for New York Comic Con 2012 (Oct. 11 - 14) including this artwork in T-Shirt form! Read more about it below for more info!

http://marvel.com/news/story/19489/marvel_celebrates_new_york_comic_con_with_exclusive_items

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This is kind of a huge deal for me...

It's no secret that I am a fan of Joss Whedon. I have created artwork based off of several of his creations including Firefly, Dr. Horrible, and most recently, Buffy The Vampire Slayer. I am extremely honored to be a part of this show as both a fan of Whedon's work as well as a huge Marvel fan.

On May 4th, 2012, Joss Whedon will unleash his most ambitious project yet with Marvel's The Avengers. The night before however, Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles is holding a very special art exhibition put on by Marvel and Disney featuring some very talented people.

I am very proud and very honored to present my artwork for The Avengers show at Gallery 1988:

A limited number of signed and numbered prints will be available exclusively at Gallery 1988. You can get them in person through the weekend (if they're still available) and online. CLICK HERE! Sorry folks, all sold out.

Along with prints will be a framed album complete with Captain America's shield for the record! I had a fun time creating this one. I am a huge Weezer fan and I knew that they had released The Red Album on red vinyl so I tracked one down and put a white circle in the middle to create the shield look. Below is a mock-up of what the framed album looks like. There is only one of these in existence, so hopefully a lucky person gets to take this home with them after the gallery opening.

image courtesy of Collider

I also created an album back complete with track listing just for this blog. The artwork below will not be for sale, I just got really into what I was working on:

I am very excited for this show, and as you can see by the list below, there are some very talented people involved with this.

I'd like to thank Marvel, Disney, and Gallery 1988 for the opportunity to create some artwork for this event. It really is so awesome to be involved with a project like this. I'd also like to give a special thanks to Joss Whedon for all of his hard work and dedication to telling stories in the way he does.

Marvel's "The Avengers" assembles in theaters everywhere on Friday May 4th

Artists Assemble at Gallery 1988 on Thursday May 3rd and it's only open through the weekend folks so hurry on down, otherwise you might make the Hulk angry, and you won't like him when he's angry.

"Assemble"
Thursday May 3rd, 2012
7021 Melrose Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90038
http://www.gallery1988.com
http://marvel.com

To purchase prints of my previous artwork, head on over to my Etsy store and take a look around!

Buffy and The Scoobies

*******UPDATE*******
Coming Monday, February 13th to Teefury for 24 hours only!!

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2011 has been an excellent year. I was able to participate in some excellent Gallery shows, most notably "Crazy 4 Cult" at Gallery 1988 where I debuted my "Sing Along with Dr. Horrible" album. I also got to participate in a great charity event for Equality Now where I got to meet Joss Whedon, Nathan Fillion, and Felicia Day.

I worked with Teefury to raise money for Maurissa Tancharoen Whedon and her Walk for Lupus Campaign, and in return I got some AWESOME stuff in the mail from some pretty awesome people:


As the great 2011 draws to a close, as does my series of Whedon inspired albums with my latest piece:


I created this artwork for one of the most important people in the world to me. My new Fiancé Kristin. She is amazing and there are so many reasons why I love her. One of which is that she was wearing a batman t-shirt when I proposed to her. She also happens to be a HUGE Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan. When she came into my life, she brought Buffy along with her. I had seen and loved Firefly, Dollhouse, and Dr. Horrible, but I had yet to experience Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Well now I am happy to report that I get it... Buffy is pretty awesome. It may have taken a while, but by the end of 2011 I will have finished all 7 seasons of Buffy.

I know that Kristin isn't the only fan of Buffy, and so I wanted to share this with you. Yes YOU! If you're reading this right now... YOU are awesome. YOU are also very good looking and YOU smell nice.

Hellmouth Records has just issued this press release:
"Fresh out of Sunnydale, here comes Buffy and the Scoobies with their debut album "Chosen"! Choose your weapon and get your blood boiling with heart pounding songs such as "The Big Bad", "Out For A Walk, Bitch", and "Hush". Buffy and the Scoobies take aim at your heart and will have you begging for more. Fortune favors the brave when you are Chosen."


Here's a look at the track listing:


This is what the record label looks like:


Prints of the artwork are available to purchase exclusively through my Etsy store located at joebot.etsy.com
Buffy and the Scoobies front: HERE
Buffy and the Scoobies front and back set: HERE
If you're extra good this year, this design may appear in t-shirt form very very soon.

I always appreciate hearing from fans of my work, so feel free to leave a comment below with your thoughts! And remember what your mother should have told you, if you have nothing nice to say, write it on the internet.

Here's to 2012, let's all hope the Mayans are wrong!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!http://www.teefury.com/

Our Lady of Sunnydale Shirt!

!!!!!!! This shirt is now available on my Redbubble store !!!!!!!

Attention all Buffy fans! Yes... that means YOU. I know this is late notice, i'm very sorry, but I've been busy! Comic-Con isn't just going to see itself. I have a new t-shirt going up for sale on Teefury starting at Midnight (Eastern) tonight and 9:00pm (for all of us west coasters). On Tuesday July 26th, you can buy "Our Lady of Sunnydale" from Teefury.com for the very low price of just $10. I spent that on nacho sauce this past week at Comic-Con, so $10 for a t-shirt is a pretty good deal. It's only available for 24 hours so go go go!



(Edit) It seems that the image that Teefury has displayed is burning peoples retinas resulting in hate-filled anger that would make Satan himself proud. These above images more reflect the actual design and the shirt.

Crazy 4 Cult 5: I'm Too Old For This Sh*t!!!!

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***UPDATE*** Because the internet is awesome, this Dr. Horrible design is now officially licensed merchandise! You can buy it for yourself and all of your loved ones over at Quantum Mechanix by clicking HERE!

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It's like Christmas in July! Gallery 1988 is having their 5th annual "Crazy 4 Cult" show in Hollywood on July 8th, 2011! I am more than honored to be a part of this show for the 2nd time.


Crazy 4 Cult has become a summer tradition in Hollywood. Every year a group of around 100 artists come together to celebrate our love of cult movies. There are always so many to choose from and this year I had a hard time deciding which movie to choose. I was torn between 2 different films. Well, technically, one was an internet film, but it has quite a cult following nonetheless.

Last year I had chosen a film that I felt was very under-represented but loved by a very vocal and awesome group of fans that call themselves Browncoats. While I was creating "River Tam and the Fireflies" for last years show, I knew I had made something special... but I had no idea it would take off like it did. The internet was very kind to me and that artwork took me on a strange adventure over the course of the year.

I made some new friends:



I got a lot of press coverage on some of my favorite websites. I sold a few T-Shirts, and received quite a few justified complaints about a missing Shepard.

Last week I was asked to participate in an awesome event called "Can't Stop The Serenity" here in Los Angeles. More on the event can be found by clicking HERE. I had donated some artwork to be auctioned off for a charity called Equality Now. I made a few more friends at the event:


I was able to show Joss, Nathan, and Felicia the new artwork I had created for this years Crazy 4 Cult show. I was a little nervous showing them but it seems like they enjoyed it!


They each requested some of the artwork, so i'm currently putting together some special gifts for them. This was an amazing opportunity and I thank Gallery 1988 for allowing me to be a part of their show. For this years show, i'll be contributing two pieces to the Crazy 4 Cult show. I'll be writing another blog about the 2nd piece, but for now, here is my artwork submission for "Crazy 4 Cult 5: I'm Too Old For This Sh*t!!!"



I consider this to be a companion piece to the "River Tam and the Fireflies". If you're not familiar with Dr. Horrible, then you owe it to yourself to pick-up this movie. It's a 45 minute musical set in 3 acts. It was self-funded and produced during the writers strike a few years back. The writing is fantastic, as usual, but the music is the real star of the show. I'm a big fan of musicals, and this short film doesn't disappoint. A framed album will be available at the gallery. Unfortunately the soundtrack wasn't released on Vinyl, so i've included another record in it's place.


Here's the back of the album:


And the framed album that will be available at the show:


The album's Front and back prints will be available exclusively through my etsy store. To purchase high-quality water color prints, all you have to do is click HERE!. Signed prints of the album front will be available exclusively at the gallery and online through Gallery 1988's Website.

If you love film and you love artwork, you won't want to miss what is becoming THE gallery event of the year in Los Angeles. Come on down to Melrose, see some awesome artwork from some amazingly talented people, and then go across the street to Pink's Hot Dogs and get one of the best tasting dogs of your life!

Crazy 4 Cult 5: I'm Too Old For This Sh*t!!!
July 8th, 2011
7020 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90038
http://gallery1988.com

Crazy 4 Cult: 4

It's that time of the year again! Gallery 1988 is holding their 4th annual "Crazy 4 Cult" gallery show. I have participated in several previous shows at Gallery 1988, and they were kind enough to invite me to participate in this show.

Crazy 4 Cult is a gallery show celebrating the unique love for cult movies. According to Wikipedia, "A cult movie is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans.". They kindly provided me with a list of movie suggestions, and as I went through the list, I felt that a lot of them didn't necessarily add up to cult status. Most of them were films that I loved, but I felt there was a sub-genre of space western missing from the list.

I remember seeing the ads for the show Firefly but I can't say that I ever watched it when it was on the air. I guess I wasn't alone in this because the show sadly didn't make it past one season. The show left on somewhat of a cliffhanger, and luckily there was a rabid enough fanbase that someone somewhere at Universal decided it would be a good idea to greenlight the movie "Serenity"

So, when I sat down to think about what movie I wanted to illustrate for the show, I decided I wanted to join the Browncoats . As with the show, I didn't see this movie in it's initial theatrical run, but instead on DVD... which i immediately purchased after blowing through season 1 of Firefly over a weekend. Anyway, one of the things that always seemed unique about the show was the opening theme song. It's a great little ballad written by show creator Joss Whedon that sets the tone perfectly for the entire series. Apparently the NASA astronauts are fans of this song as well, in February of this year they used it as a wakeup call on one of the last shuttle missions. Click HERE for a cool little article about that, including video from the shuttle!

A few years ago I got into collecting Vinyl records with artwork on the front. I've never really had a chance to design an album cover, and when I started thinking about what would be a fun illustration to do for Serenity, I thought since music was such a strong component of the show, that an album would be perfect. I was always a fan of old vinyl art of children's music so I wanted to incorporate a retro feel. It is a known fact that River Tam is a badass, but for now things have taken a lighter direction with "River Tam and the Fireflies"

And here's the back of the album

and the record itself

Since the soundtrack to Serenity wasn't actually released on vinyl, this record contains something special for whoever decides to purchase the full item from the gallery. Here's a quick shot of the finished product

Prints of the cover art will be available to purchase through the gallery as well as my etsy store HERE

So if you're in town July 9th and want to come check out some great artwork by over 100 artists, do yourself a favor and come check out the gallery opening for Crazy 4 Cult at Gallery 1988. Kevin Smith will be there as the host for the evening as well

Crazy 4 Cult: 4 "the case of the redundant number"
July 9th, 2010
7020 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90038
http://gallery1988.com/

p.s. I got to meet THE creative genius Joss Whedon last year at a comic-con party... and I just wanted to share this picture because it's awesome! Beards unite!